Less than a century after the American Revolution, a great-great-grandson of two of the key people in America’s first spy ring was born. His name was Benjamin Strong, Jr., and two of his great-great-grandparents were Judge Selah and Anna (Smith) Strong, of Setauket, Long Island, NY.

In 1910, Benjamin Strong, Jr. was one of the seven men (they were said to have represented an estimated 1/4 of the total wealth of the entire world) who attended the secret meeting on Jekyll Island, GA where the Federal Reserve System was conceived.

So I queried the Family Forest® this morning to look for Mike Huckabee’s Family Forest® cousins. As I expected to find, Mike Huckabee shares ancestors in the Family Forest® with most of the key characters in TURN. Here they are, arranged from most distant to closest.

Once upon a time, there was a Knight. He was of Claverham Manor in Arlington, Sussex, England.

Many of Sir Thomas Fiennes ancestors were also Knights. A number of his ancestors in the first ten generations were also Lords and Earls, and one was a famous king who was one of the key historical figures in Braveheart.

Sir Thomas married Anne Urswick in about 1482 and is said to have had three sons and four daughters by her. All four of their daughters married.

According to the ancestral history digitally indexed and mapped out in the Family Forest®, their daughter Margaret is an ancestor of some of the most famous lawmen of the American West, the Earp brothers.

Then, one century later, another one of Sir Thomas and Anne’s descendants, through their daughter Anne, portayed the central figure in the fight in a Hollywood movie. He is the famous Hollywood actor Kurt Russell, and he portrayed his 12c5r (twelth cousin five times removed), Wyatt Earp, in Tombstone.

P.S. We claim, and as this blog should clearly demonstrate, that the Family Forest® is the best digital central source for connecting more people through family ties to Tombstone, AZ than any other resource. The same claim can be made for countless thousands of cities and towns across America and Europe.

Family Forest® Project

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Family Forest® is a product and registered trademark of Millisecond Publishing Company, Inc.

But what if you want to pass along the bigger picture of your assembled and connected ancestral heritage?

Now into my third decade growing the Family Forest® connection service, I can’t begin to count how many times I’ve heard variations on the very same story. It goes like this.

My ________ (parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc.) had been researching and assembling our family history for decades. After she/he passed and the house was being prepared for estate liquidation, my ________ (sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.) threw it out with all of the other stuff they thought was just worthless accumulations.

I recently spoke with an elderly gentleman who knew this story, and he was trying to prevent it from happening to his descendants, both living and unborn. He already knew that his children and grandchildren had little or no interest in his/their family history, yet.

And Sam had great stories to pass along. At least two of his ancestors were well-documented to have performed valuable services in the founding of our country, and to have personally known George Washington.

So he joined the SAR. Joining a hereditary society is a great first step in passing along a part of your ancestral history to future generations of your descendants.

The reason that I say a part of your ancestral history is because each hereditary society has a particular interest area that they excel at. This valuable focus prevents them from including all of the parts of your ancestral heritage that are outside of their interest area, no matter how interesting those parts are to you and your descendants.

You can join multiple hereditary societies, and pass along multiple parts of your ancestral heritage, in separated parts.

But what if you want to pass along the bigger picture of your assembled and connected ancestral heritage?

How many motivational stories about your own ancestors are squirreled-away in the nooks and crannies of recorded history, waiting to be discovered?

Maybe the beginning of a new year is the perfect time for you to consider giving us the opportunity to utilize the Family Forest® to lead your family to one or more of those stories.

Family Forest Connection Service

I can’t stop thinking about a Family Forest® connection service I recently completed for a young lady from California. It was memorable to me for several reasons, including starting with so little, and accomplishing so much.

The most inspirational part for me is thinking about the spirit of one of Marsia’s ancestors, one of her 7th-great-grandfathers, with the unusual surname of Brothwell. Joseph was a soldier from Yorkshire, England. I found a story about him on page 1,350 of A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport Connecticut, by Rev. Samuel Orcutt, published in 1886.

More than two centuries ago, Joseph jumped ship in the West Indies, and swam six miles to shore! Then he somehow came to New York, then moved on to Black Rock, in Fairfield, CT, and made his home there at what is now called Stratfield.

Forty-some years later, I still remember sailing due west into the Gulf of Mexico from Longboat Key, FL in a 15′ Venture Cat. It sat very close to waterlevel. At probably about a mile out, I looked back and the shoreline had almost disappeared. It was scary.

What would it have been like if I had continued sailing toward Texas for about five more miles, then jumped off, and tried swimming back to shore? And done it more than two centuries ago, when there were more and bigger creatures in the sea?

What did life look like through Joseph Brothwell’s eyes? What was he thinking while he was very vulnerable in the midst of the perils of the sea, with miles still left to swim?

How inspirational might it be to a college-bound young lady to discover that she carries the genes of this spirited and determined adventurer?

How many motivational stories about your own ancestors are squirreled-away in the nooks and crannies of recorded history, waiting to be discovered?

Maybe the beginning of a new year is the perfect time for you to consider giving us the opportunity to utilize the Family Forest® to lead your family to one or more of those stories.

I tend to think of from a family ties perspective. Janis Joplin has been in the Family Forest® for awhile, and she has tons of Family Forest® cousins, so I searched for some of her single-digit Family Forest® cousins who might be interested in outbidding their other cousins to own their rock-icon cousin’s Porsche.

You are correct about Janis Joplin, but not about a Mercedes-Benz.
This time it’s about Janis’ classic 1965 Porsche 356c Cabriolet, with a jaw-dropping custom paint job, and it will be auctioned by Sotheby’s on December 10th, 2015 in New York.

Most things I notice, I tend to think of from a family ties perspective. Janis has been in the Family Forest® for awhile, and she has tons of Family Forest® cousins, so I searched for some of her single-digit Family Forest® cousins who might be interested in outbidding their other cousins to own their rock-icon cousin’s Porsche.

Janis’ closest Family Forest® cousin I found so far (6C1R) is Christopher Lloyd. He looked right at home in his DeLorean in the Back to the Future movies, and he should acquire his famous cousin’s Porsche while it’s available.

Next closest is Anne Hathaway (8C). Get Smart’s Agent 99 would be perfect for Janis’ classic 1967 Porsche.

Warren Buffet, one of Janis’ 8C2R, would certainly be noticed in Omaha when he arrives at the next Berkshire-Hathaway meeting in Janis’ Porsche.

Kate Bosworth, another one of Janis’ 8C2R, would probably be even more at home behind the wheel of Janis’ Porsche than she was on a surfboard in Blue Crush.

Some of Janis’ Family Forest® ninth cousins may want to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity before it disappears.

You can easily spend years of time, and lots of money, searching for answers to the first question in genealogy: “Who are my ancestors?”
This is a much bigger project than the first, and it gives you, hopefully, exciting answers to the second question of genealogy. “Who do I share ancestors with?”

You can easily spend years of time, and lots of money, searching for answers to the first question of genealogy: “Who are my ancestors?”

What you will end up with, hopefully, is a number of generation-by-generation pathways leading from you to some of your ancestors, from several centuries ago, and back again.

What you almost never end up with is a number of generation-by-generation pathways leading from you to some of your ancestors, and then coming back different pathways to some of your famous cousins!

This is a much bigger project than the first, and it gives you, hopefully, exciting answers to the second question of genealogy. “Who do I share ancestors with?” You and your family will almost certainly be pleasantly surprised.

Fortunately, much of this second and much bigger project has already been done for you by the Family Forest® Project. All that’s left is to let us network you and your family into this amazingly interconnected web of family ties.

As we enter our third decade of strategic ancestral history R&D, based on the best of the best of what we have discovered in recorded history, we are extremely well positioned to provide you and your family with enriching discoveries that could easily take you years of your time and thousands of dollars to discover on your own.

Whether you have already been searching for years, or are just realizing that you would you would like to know how connected you are, please look at what our new connection service can do for you.

As I am prone to do while we are Networking Family History with Hollywood™, I often watch Turner Classic Movies and programs in search of interesting characters to lineage link into the vast network of family ties that is the Family Forest®.

Earlier this year TCM arranged with Disney to present some classic Disney content on TCM. The one that triggered fun memories that I hadn’t accessed in decades was Davy Crockett.

As a young boy in the 1950s, one of the biggest fads I remember was coonskin caps. No matter where you lived in America, if you didn’t have one, you certainly knew a number of boys who did.

The TCM introduction taught me something I didn’t know. Davy Crockett was the first (and only?) produced-for-television series that was repurposed into a hit theatrical movie.

Against staff recommendations that it be shot in less expensive black and white, since that was how the television audience would see it, visionary Walt Disney insisted that they shot it in color. After the huge popularity of the show, it was re-edited into a movie called “Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier”, and what people had already seen for free at home, they then paid to see at theaters.

So I made a note to look for the ancestors of the lead actor, Fess Parker, to see if I could network him into the Family Forest® (since before the end of the last century, the prime directive has been that no one gets into the Family Forest® unless they are related by birth, marriage, or adoption to someone who is already in).

Even though I do this all the time, there is no way I can guess in advance who someone’s closest celebrity cousins will be. In Fess Parker’s case, I was more surprised than usual.

So far in the Family Forest®, Fess Parker’s two closest celebrity cousins are a former Disney Mouseketeer and a President of the United States, Britney Spears (sixth cousin twice removed, 6C2R) and President Obama (7C2R).

So how surprised might you and your family be to discover your closest celebrity cousins?

Now, after twenty years of strategic research and preparation, the Family Forest® can probably show you your closest celebrity cousins through our new connection service.

As I am searching daily through the vast collection of fascinating nooks and crannies of recorded history waiting to be explored (and leaving a well-marked digital trail to the discoveries found there), I often pause to reflect on this thought-proving truth.

What if this or that seemingly insignificant deed, action, accident, mistake, introduction, meeting, serendipitous discovery or observation, suggestion, encouragement, timely smile, act of kindness, etc. had never happened? What if ……?

As I am searching daily through the vast collection of fascinating nooks and crannies of recorded history waiting to be explored (and leaving a well-marked digital trail to the discoveries found there), I often pause to reflect on this thought-proving truth.

What if this or that seemingly insignificant deed, action, accident, mistake, introduction, meeting, serendipitous discovery or observation, suggestion, encouragement, timely smile, act of kindness, etc. had never happened? What if ……?

Recently I was reminded of this truth in my own life, when this photograph arrived in my email.

There is famous Hollywood actor John Travolta. How many hours over the years have we enjoyed watching and re-watching his movies? How many people around the globe instantly recognize him?

Then there is famous NASA space pioneer and American hero Buzz Aldrin, an inspiration to so many people over the decades, and now an active advocate for America’s future greatness.

Then there is my dear old friend Tom Nocera, the youngest member of the launch crew for Apollo 11, celebrating the 46th anniversary of the historic event with our cousin Buzz and John Travolta.

While he was there, he informed Buzz Aldrin that Buzz is a single-digit cousin of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride. Tom presented him with a Family Forest® relationship chart laying out the exact connection.

Just a couple of weeks earlier Tom gave Mrs. David Crosby a Family Forest® relationship chart. It showed David’s generation-by-generation family ties to one of David’s favorite authors, Mark Twain.

Even though it was a very small event over four decades ago, it’s still a vivid memory. My fiancee and I were on a pier on Clearwater Beach on a picture postcard perfect Florida evening, taking pictures with her Dad’s camera.

I accidently dropped the lens cap, and watched helplessly as it rolled seemingly in slow motion to the edge of the pier, then fell silently for about six feet before it went kerplunk! (lens caps were metal in those days) into Clearwater Bay.

Tom Nocera, the owner of the camera store where we bought a replacement lens cap the next day, became a great and lifelong friend.

If that one tiny event had not happened, if I had not accidentally dropped that lens cap 44 years ago, this photograph would not have arrived in my email box. But impossible to imagine, the whole timeline in between would have been altered in incalculable ways, including probably, me meeting Kristine.

Almost equally as important to Kristine and me today, Tom would not have become the leading champion of our Family Forest® Project, and one of its most enthusiastic supporters.

Thank you Tom for being there in Clearwater that day, for your encouragement and assistance to keep us Networking Family History with Hollywood™, and for introducing the Family Forest® to so many of the millions of people who are destined to be delighted and enriched by it!

If you were Prince William or Prince Harry, of course you would have grown up expecting to see the faces of your ancestors on coins. After all, their paternal grandmother’s face appears on more coins than any person in history, a record which will certainly never be broken.

But for me, as I guess it is for you, the expectation of ever seeing a coin with the face of one of my ancestors seemed as ridiculously absurd as the possibility of me visiting Saturn.

Then all of a sudden, there he was! And he’s on a magnificent coin, a Roman Caesar (junior emperor) being a savior of London.

I read about the conquering hero depicted on the coin, and discovered that he was the father of someone who, according to the ancestral history mapped out in the Family Forest®, I have many different ancestral pathways to.

So of course I bought the book. How can anyone not own the book containing photographs of the first coin one discovers depicting his or her ancestor?

Constantius Chlorus is an ancestor of probably more than a billion people living today. If you are reading this in English (or French, or German, or Spanish, or Russian, etc.), he is almost certainly one of yours. I hope you enjoy the discovery, cousin.